December in Clarkesville is short days and long shadows, the mountains bare, the lawns dormant and most of the color moved indoors to the lights around the square. Troy's Lawns uses that stretch for the last leaf clearing and the cutting back that carries a property clean into the new year. Once March turns, the mowing round starts again and holds all summer — cut, edge, trim, blow the walks, on to the next. Habersham County grows grass in a hurry from April on, and staying ahead of it is the whole trick. Every visit ends the same way, with straight lines across the lawn and nothing left on the concrete.